Globe Newswire:
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 13, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Restaurant Design Concepts, California’s only full-service restaurant architectural, construction, interior design and operations company, today announced that it is working in partnership with One Olive Group, franchisee for The Halal Guys.
The Halal Guys is a fast-casual franchise that was first established in 1990 as a food cart on the south-east corner of 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, New York. The franchise, which is most recognized by its platter of chicken or gyro meat and rice, is rapidly growing with locations around the world including U.S., Canada, Indonesia, Korea and the Philippines.
One Olive Group opened its first The Halal Guys franchise location in San Jose in 2016 and two more in 2018, with two others in addition slated for 2019, with the help of Restaurant Design Concepts (RDC). With a plan of launching 15 to 20 more franchise locations across the Bay Area and Sacramento in the next 10 years, One Olive Group has peace-of-mind knowing that RDC is a partner they can rely on for all their build-outs going forward.
According to One Olive Group, interior design plays a key role in the success of each The Halal Guys franchise location. Implementing brand standards, incorporating brand colors into everything down to the furniture, in an efficient and practical way is very important. Due to the large volume and long lines to purchase, the franchise must operate with great efficiency.
Incorporating brand standards in a way that fit in with the community was also a priority for One Olive Group. For example, the design of one location in a shopping center which was a former GE plant incorporated small details and embraced its former use as a manufacturing space.
One Olive Group appreciated RDC’s ability to recognize certain aspects of a space that could potentially pose challenges during the restaurant build-out. As a result, they started bringing RDC into their projects at the very beginning, when scouting locations and before signing any leasing agreement.
“Without proper design, it would be difficult for us to ensure that our customer flow and operations run smoothly,” said Jason Wu, franchise group vice president of operations at One Olive Group. “With a limited space to work with from the back to the front of the house, we were looking for a pretty tight design that would allow us to quickly meet the order volume in our stores which can run anywhere from 300 to 500 orders per day. RDC was the ticket to achieving our goal of efficiency and implementing design standards that considered the complexities of each site.”
“As former start-up tech founders, professionalism, agility, flexibility and responsiveness were extremely important to us and we found that in RDC and then some,” added Wu. “The RDC team is great at helping us figure out the total cost of our build-out in the very beginning, which saves a lot of time and hassle. They are also getting things done at crunch time and using their connections to identify local experts including mechanical engineers, electricians and other resources.”
About The Halal Guys
From humble beginnings as a New York City hot dog cart to a world-renowned international restaurant chain, The Halal Guys story is the quintessential American Dream. The Halal Guys is defining a new, thriving segment for the restaurant industry: American Halal Food!
The Halal Guys legend began in 1990, when the three founding partners opened up a hot dog cart on West 53rd & 6th Avenue in New York City. As business grew, they recognized a huge demand from Muslim cab drivers looking for a halal food meal. That is when the famous platter of chicken and gyro over rice was born. And let’s not forget about the famous white and red sauces!
Fast-forward 25 years, five carts, two New York City restaurants, and millions of diverse customers served, The Halal Guys is growing yet again. Fans no longer have to be in NYC to experience The Halal Guys as they look to share American Halal Food all over the country and the world.
About Restaurant Design Concepts
Founded in 2008, Restaurant Design Concepts is Northern California’s only combined source for the food service industry with restaurant architects, commercial interior designers, construction management and procurement professionals all under one roof. While the company primarily serves businesses across California, Restaurant Design Concepts also is available for projects across the U.S. The company is headquartered in Oakland, California and has offices in Oakland and San Jose.